phanatic Posted April 12, 2004 Share Posted April 12, 2004 Another BS liberal article. I think every soldier would question why they are in a foreign country fighting a war, even those as clear cut as the World Wars. It's natural. It's called being human and exercising your cognative mind. So how does a liberal writer spin this? Have a read. http://www.mtstandard.com/articles/2004/04/08/newsopinion/hjjfjfjbhghbid.txt About 40 percent of our soldiers in Iraq enlisted in the National Guard or the Army Reserve to pick up some extra money and never thought they'd be called on to fight. They want to come home. Really? I guess becoming a firefighter is a bad idea because I might actually have to fight one. I guess being a night security guard is a bad idea, although the schedule does not conflict with college and affords me the opportunity to attend, I still might get beat up or shot. Ladies and gents, it's called the ARMED FORCES for a reason. One indication that not all soldiers in Iraq are happy warriors is the report recently released by the Army showing that 23 of them committed suicide there last year. This is a dismaying figure. If 22 young men and one woman killed themselves because they couldn't take it, think how many more are desperately unhappy but unwilling to die. Oh this is priceless. Let's see, there were over 175,000 troops (in total including the rotation) that were in Iraq last year. Let's just say for simplicities sake, there were only 100,000 soldiers in country last year. Since I've skewed this in favor of the "lefty" article, this will really make my point clear. That's 23 suicides out of 100,000 thousand soldiers. And every soldier has some sort of firearm, correct? Shouldn't that make suicide that much easier to achieve? Now let's assume that the VAST majority of our soldiers are male and in there early 20's. Well, well. How about we take a peak at some CDC data on suicide rates in this country for that age bracket. http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/hus/tables/2003/03hus046.pdf Notice something disturbingly similar? Male 20-24 years. 20.5 suicides per 100,000. (2001 data). So here we have soldiers with weapons under "extreme" conditions and their suicide rates are considerably lower than that right here in the US of A? This is the lead article on Drudge right now. The authors name is Andy Rooney. Hmm. I think it's quite pathetic than ANY writer would base the strength of his "piece" on what would be considered normal human behavior. Maybe he should have written an article on the incredible resolve of these young individuals, but that, of course, might have pulled him closer to the center. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AJWatson3 Posted April 12, 2004 Share Posted April 12, 2004 my sisters college roommate is in a situation just like this. she needed some extra money, so enlisted in the rotc program. never thought she'd be going to war, now she is a miserable wreck. she thought she'd stay out of combat like a large majority of those who took advantage of the ROTC/GI Bill (whatever it is called). now she is in Iraq, they have her running a PX instead of looking for chemical weapons like she was trained to do... so atleast she isn't in the line of fire... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phanatic Posted April 12, 2004 Author Share Posted April 12, 2004 Originally posted by AJWatson3 my sisters college roommate is in a situation just like this. she needed some extra money, so enlisted in the rotc program. never thought she'd be going to war, now she is a miserable wreck. she thought she'd stay out of combat like a large majority of those who took advantage of the ROTC/GI Bill (whatever it is called). now she is in Iraq, they have her running a PX instead of looking for chemical weapons like she was trained to do... so atleast she isn't in the line of fire... I'm willing to bet that your sisters roomate look back years from now and be thankful that she served. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
redman Posted April 12, 2004 Share Posted April 12, 2004 We have a female family friend who's 30 and who has been an Army reservist for almost 12 years. She just came back from a tour over there and was running the mail facility. How on earth can someone who has enjoyed the benefits of being a reservist possibly complain about paying it back by being called to duty? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DeaconBlue Posted April 12, 2004 Share Posted April 12, 2004 I can understand their sentiment but the risk of going to war is pretty much implied when becoming a military reservist isn't it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AJWatson3 Posted April 12, 2004 Share Posted April 12, 2004 phanatic, her fiance broke his back while they were there (he serves too), so i can't imagine she'll be all that stoked about it. but, yes, that's the deal: we pay for school, you fight for us. just like a sports scholorship in college, with less risk of death. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J33Edwards Posted April 12, 2004 Share Posted April 12, 2004 well I think that a good number that sign up for the national guard expect to guard the U.S....not be called upon to go overseas. Whether or not thats what they should have expected is a different argument. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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